Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/355

343 H U M H U M 343 &tatus of many of them, and the synonymy is very compli cated. The nests are mt constructed after the symmetrical fashion of those of the hive-bee, but consist of a collection of oval brownish cells, at first few in number, but receiving additions and extensions as the brood increases, and accom panied by cells containing pollen and honey. The workers assist in rearing the larvae, and in disengaging the indivi duals from their pupal integuments as they reach the perfect state ; and it has been noticed that this metamorphosis is accelerate! by a kind of incubation. The nests are made und :r bushes, in banks, &c., sometimes as much as 5 feet from the surface. A well-known one is made by the &quot;Moss-carder&quot; humble-bee, Bombus muscorum, which has often been observed collecting the natural material for its domj, working in line. As usual with provident or social animals, these interesting insects are subject to encroach ment by parasites of various kinds ; most noteworthy among which are some species (there are three or four in England) of the closely allied genus Apatkus (or Psi- thyras), superficially resembling exactly the true humble- bees, but with no pollen-collecting apparatus, and no workers. They exist apparently on friendly terms with their hosts, whose stores are at times materially preyed upon by the larvse of Volucella, a genus of Diptera or two- winged flies also resembling humble-bees. Various beetles, sucli as Autherophagus, Cryptopliagns, Leptinus, &c., and the larvae of Tinea pellionella, a small moth, also occur in their nests. As regards distribution, the Bombi are found in Europe, America (North and South), Afiica, India, China, and Java, but not in Australasia, where, indeed, it has even been .ttemptel to introduce some species for the purpose of fertilizing the introduced clover, for which the structure of the native insects is apparently insufficient. It is, however, in the northern zone that they flourish best, their hardy nature enabling them to exist in the Arctic regions, as far as man has penetrated ; and the numerous additions con tinually being made to the list of known species from the Caucasus, the Amur district, Turkistan, Arizona, &c., point, not only to a wide geographical range, but to a large adapta tion to some useful end. The experiments of Darwin, Miiller, and others show how important a part is played by humble-bees in the economy of nature as plant fertilizers; and, though perhaps not exhibiting such highly-developed instincts as the hive-bee, they possess sufficient reasoning power to enable them, by perforating the base of the calyx of certain flowers, to obtain otherwise inaccessible honey. HUMBOLDT, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDER, BARON VON (1769-1859), a distinguished naturalist and traveller, was born at Berlin, September 14, 17G9. His father, who was a major in the Prussian army, belonged to a Pomeranian family of consideration, and was rewarded for his services during the Seven Years War with the post of royal cham berlain. He married in 1766 Maria Elizabeth von Colomb, widow of Baron von Hollwede, and had by her two sons, of whom the younger is the subject of this notice. The childhood of Alexander von Humboldt was not a promising one, as regards either health or intellect. His characteristic t istes, however, soon displayed themselves ; and from his fancy for collecting and labelling plants, shells, and insects he received the playful title of &quot;the little apothecary.&quot; The care of his education, on the unexpected death of his father in 1779, devolved upon his mother, who discharged the trust with constancy and judgment. Destined for a political career, he studied finance during six months at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder ; and a year later, April 25, 1789, he matriculated at Gottingen, then eminent for the lectures of Heyne and Blurnenbach. His vast and varied powers were by this time fully developed ; and future performances in a scientific excursion up the Rhine, and in the treatise thence issuing, Mineralogiscke Beobucht- ungen uber einige JJasalte am Itheiii (Brunswick, 1790). His native passion for distant travel was confirmed by the friendship formed by him at Gottingen with George Forster, Heyne s son-in-law, the distinguished companion of Cook s second voyage. Henceforth his studies, which his rare combination of parts enabled him to render at once multi farious, rapid, and profound, were directed with extraor dinary insight and perseverance to the purpose of preparing himself for his distinctive calling as a scientific explorer. With this view he studied commerce and foreign languages at Hamburg, geology at Freiberg under Werner, anatomy at Jena under Loder, astronomy and the use of scientific instruments under Zach and Kuhler. His researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to the publica tion in 1793 of his Florae Fribergenais Specimen; and the results of a prolonged course of experiments on the phenomena of muscular irritability, then recently dis covered by Galvani, were contained in his Verxuche iibtr die gereizte Musket- inid Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797), enriched in the French translation with notes by Blumen- bach. In 1794 he was admitted to the intimacy of the famous Weimar coterie, and contributed (June 1795) to Schiller s new periodical, Die floren, a philosophical allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische Genius. In the summer of 1790 he paid a flying visit to England in company with Forster. In 1792 and 1797 he was in Vienna; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour through Switzerland and Italy. He had obtained in the meintime otiicial employment, having been appointed assessor of mines at Berlin, February 29, 1792. Although the service of the state was consistently regarded by him but as an apprentice ship to the service of science, he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that he not only rapidly rose to the highest post in his department, but was besides entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. The death of his mother, November 19, 1796, set him free to follow the bent of his genius, and, finally severing his official connexions, he waited for an opportunity of executing his long-cherished schemes of travel. On the postponement of Captain Baudin s proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, he left Paris for Marseilles with Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Bonaparte in Egypt. The means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found their way to Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the minister d Urquijo determined them to make Spanish America the scene of their explorations. Armed with powerful recommendations, they sailed in the &quot; Pizarro &quot; from Cornnna, June 5, 1799, stopped six days at Tenerifi e for the ascent of the Peak, and landed, July 16, at Cumana. There Humboldt observed, on the night of the 12-1 3th of November, that remarkable meteor- shower which forms the starting-point of our acquaintance with the periodicity of the phenomenon ; thence lie proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas; and in February 1800 he left the coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco. This trip, which lasted four months, and covered 1725 miles of wild and uninhabited country, had the important result of establishing the existence of a communication between the water-systems of the Orinoco and Amazon, and of determining the exact position of the bifurcation. On the, 24th of November the two friends set sail for Cuba, and after a stay of some months regained the mainland at i Cartagena. Ascendingthe swollen stream of the Magdalena, ! and crossing the frozen ridges of the Cordilleras, they reached
 * during the vacation of 1789 he gave a fair earnest of his